2013 was probably one of my favorite years so far in my life. So many things about it were just so GOOD, and there was very little that was bad or hard. I know that not every year will be like that, so I feel like I should really appreciate the fact that 2013 was fairly easy/trial free and that we did so many wonderful, fun things.
January
January of 2013 was probably the hardest month in our not-very-hard year because it was the month we had to adjust to being married, and being students. We had to spend a lot of time away from each other and learn how to maximize our time together. The other hard thing about January was the bitter cold that we experienced. It wasn't uncommon to get in our car, and find that the inside needed to be scraped.
But we also did some really fun things like run in the St. George Races. Kevin and I did the 5K and supported my mom and brother in the half marathon. This was really the catalyst for getting me back into running this year. I'm going to do this half marathon in 2014 where I could barely do the 5K in 2013. Yay!
February
February 2013 was another cold month so we learned how to be creative on our date nights. One night we made the most epic fort. We watched a movie and fell asleep in our fort which was actually not that fun. Couch cushions are not the most comfortable to sleep on.
We are a couple who loves to hike, and we found some time for some winter hiking up slate canyon. Even though it was chilly, it was super pretty!
We celebrated our first Valentines Day as a couple (crazy to think we didn't even know each other on 2012's Love Day!). Kevin really went out of his way to make it special with lots of love notes hidden around, a rose, some fudge and lots of love. He always makes me feel like I'm the most special girl in the world.
March
In March 2013 we headed back down to a surprisingly cold St. George for the Red Rock Relay where we wore inappropriately busty women on our shirts to support my Aunt Sherri who was battling breast cancer at the time (she's now cancer-free!). Kevin rocked his two 4-mile legs. I did not rock mine, but that's okay.
Kevin performed in BYU's Acapella Jam with his group, Morris Code and did a great job. He loves being on stage and I love supporting him off stage.
We celebrated a Christ-centered Easter together at the very tail end of March and looked forward to the season of re-birth.
April
In April 2013 we focused hard on school (well, Kevin did). Winter semester was a really hard one for me, and I honestly just did whatever I could to make it to summer vacation.
But we made it through finals with the help of my mom's '80s BYU sweatshirt. After finals were over we got to spend a fun few days with Kevin's parents who were here for his brother's graduation. Of course I don't have any pictures of that...
At the end of April we sent my grandparents off on their mission to the Philippines where they are working so hard and doing so much good! I miss them a lot and am so proud of them!
May
In May 2013 we both started full-time work. Kevin also took one class per term. It was hard to be away from each other for 10+ hours every day. But we really worked hard to make sure that we stayed close to each other and make the most of this summer together.
Over Mother's Day weekend we took our first "trip" as a married couple to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. It was some of the best hiking ever and we had a total riot. It was the perfect way to kick off a summer of serious hiking.
In the month of May we also hiked to the Y, and then a couple of weeks later we hiked all the way to the top of Y Mountain (not pictured). Hiking together is our favorite way to stay connected. We are with each other for hours, doing something active, and it's easy to just TALK. We always end up talking about our future kids and what kind of parents we want to be, money, and our plans for an active lifestyle. I don't think you can ever talk about that stuff enough!
May was the month that we started doing Bountiful Baskets! We LOVED getting all that fresh produce for way cheaper than we could have otherwise. We got to experiment with a lot of different fruits and veggies which was so fun.
June
In June of 2013, Kevin's entire family came to visit! Kevin's brother and sister-in-law had a new baby in May, and his younger brother Chris was getting ready to head to the MTC to start his mission to Brazil (6 months later he still doesn't have a Visa, but we are praying that he gets down there soon!).
While they were here we did a few temple sessions, including our first time going to the Salt Lake Temple. We also hiked to Timpanogos Caves, ate out a lot, saw some movies, and just enjoyed spending time together. I truly love the Stevens' Family!
One memorable weekend, we were supposed to do an overnight babysitting job for one of my favorite families from my homeward, but the kids all got sick, so they offered their overnight stay at a resort in Park City to us! It was just what we needed. We were about to have our 6-month-anniversary, and things had been stressful at work. It was SO nice to just be able to spend time together at a fancy resort, in beautiful Park City!
At the end of June we finally went on our first camping trip together! It was so much fun and we despaired that we got started so late in the summer. You can best bet that this summer we'll be camping every other weekend!
July
July 2013 was a great month. We celebrated our first 4th of July together and had a blast, ran a lot and my long runs started getting longer than 5 miles.
My sweet hubby turned 24! To celebrate we had salmon by candlelight and cookies with candles in them. I love my darling Kevin and I'm so glad he was born. :)
We did a lot more camping. We camped once with my family at Smith and Morehouse in the Uintas which was gorgeous. A few weeks later we camped on the back of Squaw Peak. Why is camping so much fun?
We also hiked some more (big surprise!). We hiked to the top of Squaw Peak which is one of our favorites. We also did Stewart Falls at some point...that may have been in June...
August
August 2013 was probably the best month of the year. We did so many fun things, and it marked the end of my time working full-time making traffic sensors! At the beginning of the month I got to spent 5 days in St. George with my mom, sister and aunts for our annual girls trip. It was a party!
One early Saturday morning (like 2am) we hiked Mount Timpanogos! This was our major hike of the summer and our ultimate hiking goal. It was awesome. It took us 9 hours start to finish and we are SO glad we did it! This will definitely be happening again in 2014.
The week after hiking Timp we went tubing down the Provo River with some friends. It was quite exciting, especially the part where we evacuated the river and ran a mile to the car because of a lightning storm!
I know this is an awful, washed out picture, but it was the best one I had of the Runner Girl 5K that I got to run with my mom. We had a great time and came in under 30 minutes which was quite an improvement from January's 5K!
The very, very best part of August was the week we spent on our belated honeymoon on a Carnival Cruise ship which took us to Catalina Island and Ensenada. We seriously had the BEST time, and we are already dreaming of our next vacation together!
On our way home from LA we stopped in Zions National Park for a super fun day and half of hiking and camping. It was the most perfect way to end our trip. We want to go back to Zions ASAP! (we also want to go to Yellowstone, and Costa Rica, and Roatan though so who knows if this will actually happen soon!)
September
Sept 2013 marked the beginning of my Senior Year of College! It also began the most rocking semester I've ever had, with only 12 credits and an easy mostly-online job. Dang I was spoiled! I also turned 22! This was the only picture that was taken on the day of my birthday.
I made this cookie recipe almost every week. True story. This particular batch was made for my mom's family's reunion up at the Heber Valley Camp. It was a blast!
I started this insanely awesome granny-square afghan which sparked the crocheting fetish that I am currently experiencing. As soon as fall comes I start to want to crochet forever.
Kevin and I both participated in intramural sports! I did volleyball and he did ultimate frisbee. Let's just say, our teams never ever won. And it might have been slightly painful...But we are still glad we did it!
The best thing about September was starting as Ordinance Workers at the Provo, Utah Temple. It is an incredible experience, and we love it so much. If you ever want to visit us, we work from 7-11am on Saturday mornings!
October
In October 2013 we started to really feel comfortable with our school routine, I kept improving with my running and we just had a good ole' time. We picked out our pumpkins one sunny day which we carved later.
We had a fun overnighter with this cutie pie and his siblings. We went on a little hike to a fun waterfall and made Halloween sugar cookies!
I re-read my very favorite series in the entire world. I don't know what it is about October, but whenever it comes I feel a need to revisit the Wizarding World. You may be wondering how I had time to read a 7 book series in less than a month. The answer to that is, my classes were not very demanding, and reading became my priority...
We celebrated our first Halloween together and were very creative with our costumes, obviously. I think we turned out pretty cute, even if we didn't put very much effort in. Maybe when we have kids we will do Halloween better...
November
November 2013 kind of became about survival for us. We just had to make it to Thanksgiving Break. School got hard and busy, but it was still a good month overall. I started selling crocheted items on Facebook which gave me a good excuse to avoid homework and crochet all day. It was fun.
We got to go see the best show ever with my sister Cammie. In the Heights people. It's awesome.
We made quite the purchase/investment for our combined Christmas/Anniversary/both-of-our-birthdays present. We seriously love this camera.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my Grandma Hursts' house. We had so much to be grateful for this year. Like I said before, it was a relatively easy year as far as trials and struggles go (knock on wood). This was my favorite picture from the day, especially after putting it on instagram and how Cammie lost an eye.
December
We've made it to the last month of 2013! December was a really wonderful month. We had our first snow of the season, and kept getting more and more snow. It's been an intense winter so far, and technically we're only 10 days into it!
We set up our cute little Christmas tree and took cool pictures of it. I was going to do this whole awesome blog post about how we decorated our tree but it didn't happen. So here's what we did: We got our fake tree for free from some people moving. We set it up, strung it with lights and made red pom-poms from my multiplicity of yarn. Then we made homemade cinnamon star ornaments and decked out our tree with those. It was so inexpensive, and it turned out SO cute!
After a run that froze everything, including my EYELASHES, I decided to start running inside more often. It was brutal. I hated it. Thankfully it's warmed up a bit lately (like, low twenties), so I've braved the outside world a little more. Last week I ran 11 miles for my long run, and I'm feeling good about running the St. George Races 1/2 marathon in January!
To relieve some of the stress from finals, we got some lunch at Chick-fil-A, where I had never been before! So that was fun. Also, please notice that this was a picture of me during finals week, and then go back and look at April's picture from finals week. I wear that sweatshirt every finals week. It was my moms when she went to BYU in the '80's which is why it looks like it came from that decade. I love it!
Shortly after we finished (and passed!) all of our finals, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Cheers to us!
Our Christmas this year was so great, as you know from my last blog post. We made gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve and spent the day with family and friends!
We had a blast this past weekend at our good friends' the Doxeys' cabin up Big Cottonwood Canyon! We ate so much delicious food I could hardly stand it, played tons of games, watched movies, and enjoyed being lazy! (Kevin did not know what to do with himself. That boy works too hard).
So, there you have it! Our 2013 as told by Instagram pictures. We truly did have a wonderful year and we are so grateful for our family and friends who made it so great. I'm really proud of everything we've accomplished this year. We are looking forward to 2014 and all of its new adventures!
1 comment:
Love reading about your year...so many fun experiences!!
Love you guys
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